There was a moment of silence.
“Theodore Benjamin Garvan, you better not be taking Tammy Lou’s dolls again!”
The completeness of his name and the sound of his mother’s voice made Teddie make a mental note to be more careful next time.
Tammy might call him by all three of his names,
but she always used his nickname first.
Theodore was reserved for his mother.
God, he hated that name.
It reminded him of a fat, dweeby chipmunk from a Saturday morning cartoon.
“I’m Not, Mom!”
He yelled back down,
careful not to sound too sassy,
but not too guilty at the same time.
He waited again, more than a little worried.
“You better not be, Young Man!”
This was the final admonition that Teddie had been waiting for.
It meant that his mom was suspicious, but really couldn’t be sure.
Since she wasn’t the type of mom to fly off the handle half-cocked, that meant he was ok.
This time.
Teddie ground his teeth and stalked back to his own room.
He would get Tammy for almost getting him in trouble.
Her and her big mouth.
Making all that noise over some stupid doll.
Boy, would she get hers.
You just wait.
He would come up with something.
He didn’t know what, but it would be something good.
Something better than just tying Sally up to be a prisoner for his Indians or hanging her by a noose for his lynch mob.
No, it would be something far worse.
Something final.
With a nasty grin,
Teddie settled down into his room to play with his knights and castle.
It wasn’t long before he was immersed in a battle of good versus evil.
The forces of good were being led by the heroic Prince Ted
who sought to defeat his grandmother the Queen and his horrible half-sister Tamugliface and her evil hordes of dastardly minions.
Soon, Teddie had forgotten all about Tammy Lou and her silly dolls.
Tammy Lou stayed mad at Teddie for the next half-hour.
He had ruined her tea party by taking her most beloved guest and friend hostage.
He had pulled Sally’s hair and gave her a frightful scare.
He was such a big, fat, meany, ugly head.
She wished that he would just go away and then she could be an only child.
She knew that she could be quite happy with only her dolls to keep her company.
After all, her dolls talked to her and never were mean.
They made the best friends.
Not like her nasty, ole brother.
But, like Teddie, Tammy couldn’t stay mad for long.
She never let her mind dwell on any one thing for too long.
That would be a waste of good playtime.
She had other, more important things to do anyway.
Like playing with her favorite doll in the whole wide world.
The most special doll that there ever was.
She had the one and only Sally Dress-Up.
At least, that was what Grandma had told her.
Tammy Lou’s grandmother had given Sally to Tammy Lou one day while they were spending the weekend at her house in the country.
It was only really about 5 miles away, but Tammy Lou and Teddie didn’t go there that often.
Tammy couldn’t figure out why,
except that Teddie didn’t get along well with grandma and her mom and grandma were always arguing about how Teddie behaved.
It seemed that grandma felt that Teddie needed a good firm hand to keep him in line.
That, or a good hard hairbrush across his backside.
Tammy had thought that was a great idea.
She thought it would be wonderful for Teddie to get what he had coming to him.
But that wasn’t the way that their mom felt.
You see, grandma was really Tammy’s father’s mom.
Her daddy was gone,
somewhere that grandma called the angels’ choir,
and her mom didn’t get along with grandma as well as daddy did.